An update on our work and a breakdown of societies on the mutuals public register.
This update sets out what has been happening from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 in the mutuals registration function, including sharing some relevant statistics.
Societies on the register include societies registered under the:
- Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014
- Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969
- Credit Unions Act 1979
- The Credit Unions (Northern Ireland) Order 1985
- Friendly Societies Act 1974
- Friendly Societies Act 1992
- Building Societies Act 1986
Read more on our role and responsibilities for mutual societies.
Delivering our mutuals work
Mutual societies are a longstanding part of the UK economy, providing vital services to their members and society in a wide range of sectors.
We aim to maintain public confidence in the different legal structures mutual societies use.
In 2024/25, we have focused on supporting growth in the mutuals sector through:
- Continuing to champion our digital platforms.
- Promoting compliance.
- Engaging regularly with societies and their representative bodies.
We have used these engagement opportunities to understand more around the challenges mutual societies face, so we can identify ways to try and assist.
We welcome the work of the Law Commission in reviewing the:
- Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014
- Friendly Societies Act 1974
- Friendly Societies Act 1992.
We support the modernisation of the legislation, and have and will continue to actively contribute to this work.
Data and digital platforms
We maintain the Mutuals Public Register and the Mutuals Society Portal.
The Portal is a system for societies to submit applications and returns to us.
Since March 2024, societies must use the Portal rather than email their returns to us.
As a result, more people are using the Portal. The number of users increased by 21% in the year to the end of March 2025. Some 76% of societies now use it.
Engagement
Every year we run roundtable events for sponsoring bodies.
This year we continued to support societies and their sponsoring stakeholders through events in October 2024 and February 2025.
We also worked on the areas below.
Stakeholder events
We took part in panel sessions and workshops, and gave speeches at a range of conferences, including:
- Club and Institute Union (CIU) annual conference, Blackpool (April 2024).
- The Association of Financial Mutuals conference, Nottingham (October 2024)
- Plunkett UK’s community business conference, London (October 2024).
- National Credit Union Forum conference, Penrith (February 2025).
- Association of British Credit Unions Limited (ABCUL) annual conference, Leeds (March 2025).
We also attended a range of events, including:
- International Cooperative Alliance European research conference.
- Co-operative Congress.
- Co-operative UK’s Practitioners Forum.
- Swoboda Research Centre conference.
- Future Co-operatives Conference.
- Football Supporters’ Association event.
- A joint conference run by the Society for Co-operative Studies Ireland, and UK Society for Co-operative Studies.
- Centre for Democratic Business conference.
We have also regularly engaged with:
- Solicitors working with societies.
- Other registrars and regulators including Companies House.
- Individual sponsoring bodies.
We provide updates throughout the year covering recent changes and other information.
Mutuals report
In November 2024, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury wrote to both us and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) asking for a report assessing the mutuals landscape.
The findings of the report will help determine how best to support the sustainable growth of the sector.
To support this work, we hosted a roundtable with representatives from across the sector in December 2024 and a roundtable in Leeds in March 2025. We also have further events planned over the coming period.
We will publish our findings later this year, alongside the PRA.
The report will include information relevant to our mutuals registration function.
Legislation
Compliance
Reported concerns
This year, we received 146 reports, covering 65 societies.
Either as a response to concerns raised with us, or from issues we identified proactively, we engaged with 74 societies individually to drive compliance with legislation.
We appreciate people taking the time to raise these concerns with us.
What we’re doing: proactive engagement
Registered addresses
Societies must have a registered office address that supports compliance with legal obligations. Legal obligations include displaying names and balance sheets at the registered office. Some societies were using addresses that did not comply. We worked with those societies to ensure their compliance.
Minimum membership numbers
The law requires that most societies must have a minimum number of 3 members. Where societies have reported having too few members, we have worked with them to see either an increase in their membership or support them to voluntarily apply to cancel their registration.
Use of our powers
As outlined in our 2023/24 update, we have continued to work with societies that have outstanding annual returns and accounts.
In 2024/25, we contacted 246 societies about outstanding returns. Of those 246 societies, we cancelled the registration of 159.
We publish a list of cancelled societies each calendar year.
See the 2024 list of cancellations
We also used our powers for other societies or organisations:
Complaints
Complaints about the delivery of the mutuals registration function are covered by our complaints scheme.
During this year, there were 2 complaints subject to a decision of the Financial Services Complaints Commissioner, who provides an independent assessment of complaints against the financial regulators, following consideration by our internal independent team.
- Complaint 202400004 (1 August 2024).
- The other complaint was not published for privacy reasons.
In numbers
Societies registered as of 31 March 2025
| Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 | 8213 |
| Friendly Societies Act 1974 | 772 |
| Credit Unions Act 1979 | 275 |
| Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 | 224 |
| The Credit Unions (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 | 61 |
| Building Societies Act 1986 | 42 |
| Friendly Societies Act 1992 | 25 |
| Total | 9612 |
Society types
| Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 | |
|---|---|
| Registered society* | 5814 |
| Co-operative society | 744 |
| Community benefit society | 1655 |
| Total | 8213 |
*This refers to societies registered before the commencement of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 on 1 August 2014, referred to in legislation as a 'pre-commencement society’.
| Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 | |
|---|---|
| Registered society** | 124 |
| Credit union | 81 |
| Co-operative society | 12 |
| Community benefit society | 7 |
| Total | 224 |
**This refers to societies registered before the commencement of section 8 of the Credit Unions and Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 on 6 April 2018, referred to in legislation as a 'pre-2016 Act society'.
| Friendly Societies Act 1974 | |
|---|---|
| Benevolent society | 21 |
| Friendly society | 92 |
| Specially authorised society | 49 |
| Working men's club | 610 |
| Total | 772 |
Societies by reporting classification
| Classification | Number of societies |
|---|---|
| Advocacy and campaigning | 64 |
| Agriculture | 358 |
| Allotment and gardening | 317 |
| Art, culture and education | 299 |
| Associations and networks | 54 |
| Community enterprise | 166 |
| Community land trusts | 295 |
| Community pubs | 271 |
| Community shops | 303 |
| Energy and environment | 382 |
| Financial services | 627 |
| Fishing | 51 |
| Health and social care | 93 |
| Housing | 2179 |
| Leisure and recreation facilities | 106 |
| Manufacturing and services | 71 |
| Produce markets | 87 |
| Professional services | 71 |
| Retail societies | 113 |
| Social clubs | 2831 |
| Sports clubs | 517 |
| Supporters' trusts | 167 |
| Technology and communications | 68 |
| Transport | 77 |
| Welfare and support | 45 |
The glossary on the Mutuals Public Register describes each category.
Changes during the year
Throughout the year, we registered 310 new societies and deregistered 323 societies.
New registrations
| Society type | Great Britain | Northern Ireland | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Community benefit societies | 188 | 1 | 189 |
| Co-operative societies | 120 | 0 | 120 |
| Credit unions | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Of the new registrations, 30 followed a company converting to a society.
Deregistrations
| Deregistration reason | Number |
|---|---|
| Conversion from a working men’s club under the Friendly Societies Act 1974 to a co-operative or community benefit society | 19 |
| Conversion of a society to a company | 5 |
| Transfer of engagements, dissolution or liquidation | 62 |
| Cancelled at own request | 78 |
| Cancelled at our instigation | 159 |
Registration and deregistration over previous years
| Year | New registration | Deregistration |
|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | 272 | 339 |
| 2019/20 | 304 | 251 |
| 2020/21 | 222 | 114 |
| 2021/22 | 288 | 142 |
| 2022/23 | 233 | 223 |
| 2023/24 | 273 | 634 |
| 2024/25 | 310 | 323 |
Applications
We made decisions on 3,633 applications during 2024/5. This represents a 19% increase in applications on the previous year.
We set a voluntary service standard to make a decision on at least 90% of complete applications within 15 working days. During this period, we made decisions on 98.27% of complete applications within 15 working days.
Other activities
The mutuals registration function also:
- Responds to queries.
- Provides a public records function.
- Processes annual returns and accounts.
- Takes action to tackle non-compliance – including using its powers.
Read more about the mutuals registration function.